A Jewell of a fence - 19 June 2015

Jenny Jewell of Greenparkes Garden Centre is adamant that she’d be out of business if they hadn’t installed a decent fence to stop the invasion of feral animals.

Mrs Jewell and her husband Don recently moved the Parkes Wholesale Nursery division from its original location in Parkes, in the New South Wales Central West, to rural acreage 20km outside of town.

“We currently stock hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of Australian native grasses and plants in an area infested by feral animals. If we didn’t have this fence, then we’d have no business. Plain and simple!” Mrs Jewell said.

With so much plant revenue at stake, coupled with sightings of up to 100 kangaroos on any given night, the Jewells weren’t taking any chances.

At 1.8m, the higher than normal ‘roo fence uses 15-150-15 Stocksafe-T®with a combination of Waratah Jio® Star® and Jio MaxY® posts at a ratio of 4:1 for extra strength to counter the pressure from kangaroos on the fenced enclosure.

“The ’roos are still out there, but it’s been over six months since the fence was built and the plants are still unharmed,” she said.

The Jewells also encountered large numbers of rabbits and foxes when they first relocated to the 20 hectare plot.

To combat this, Longlife® netting was installed along the bottom of the fence as a curtain on both sides, to prevent mainly rabbits from burrowing underneath.

“Not a single rabbit or fox has been sighted in the nursery,” Mrs Jewell said.

The Jewells sourced the expertise of James MacKay from MAC Fencing to erect the 500m of fence line.

“James and his team did a marvellous job with the fence,” Mrs Jewell said.

“Considering how popular the area is for feral animals, to have none entering the nursery is quite amazing.”